CLEVELAND HEIGHTS -- Sustainability and buildings were the primary focus when the Cleveland Heights-University Heights school district’s lay facilities committee held its fourth meeting Dec. 5 at Fairfax Elementary School.

Sam Bell, chairman of the sustainability working group, presented five ideas from that group to the committee.

The key suggestion was to ask the CH-UH school board to urge the district’s administration to hire or empower a “grand poohbah,” in Bell’s words, of sustainability for the district. Bell said someone already on the district’s payroll could be assigned this responsibility.

“We just want the right person empowered,” he said. “If we spend the money, we will get back much more than we spend in increased operational efficiency.”

Bell said the group, which is working in conjunction with the buildings subcommittee, would also like the committee to ask the school board to urge the administration to:

Have a solid waste audit performed by the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District, a free service;

Begin a comprehensive recycling program within the district upon receiving that audit;

Have an energy audit performed;

Assign someone to complete an educating for sustainability “reality check,” which can be done at no cost through The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education, Bell said.

“We believe more sustainability will result in better achievement scores,” Bell said. “The administration has told us that’s what they want, and we believe this offers a means of doing that.”

How many are feasible?

Reaching Heights Executive Director Patrick Mullen, chairman of the lay facilities committee, said he would discuss these ideas with district administrators before the committee’s next meeting to try to determine how many are feasible.

“I have concerns about making employment requests of the school district,” Mullen said, referring to the “grand poohbah” idea.

The committee’s next meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 9 at Boulevard Elementary School.

Steve Shergalis, the district’s director of administrative services, is the committee’s resource person from the district, but he was unable to attend the Dec. 5 meeting.

“One of the primary goals of the facilities planning process is to ensure that our schools are efficient and responsible now and in the future,” Shergalis said in an email.

“While these suggestions (by the sustainability group) weren’t formally part of Plan C, they are each worthy of consideration as the process continues. When they are considered, it’s important to remember they have to be viewed in the context of a finite budget and diverse priorities.”

Plan C was the facilities master plan the school board decided must be modified before it is placed on the ballot.

Bell, owner of The Lusty Wrench, an auto service and repair facility in Cleveland Heights, said sustainability is “more than just tree hugging.”

“It’s science, technology, engineering and math, applied with a view toward both local and global behavioral results,” he said. “It’s very results-driven and data-driven.”

A longtime Cleveland Heights resident and a Cleveland Heights High School alumnus, Bell was named a “champion of sustainability” in 2010 by Entrepreneurs for Sustainability for his eco-conscious auto repair work.

Buildings discussed

Eric Silverman, one of the leaders of the buildings subcommittee, gave a status report on the district’s school buildings. He summarized the strengths, weaknesses and needs of each building except Heights High, which will be discussed at the next meeting.

The committee did not vote on a grade configuration to recommend to the school board for the master facilities plan, an action Mullen had proposed at the last meeting Nov. 14.

Committee member Brian Schaner, a chemistry teacher at Heights High and vice president of the Cleveland Heights Teachers Union, has set up an online survey on the grade configuration issue for teachers in grades K-12.

The committee will get the results of the survey after it is completed, Schaner said.

The school board decided to form the lay facilities committee in August as a way to more fully involve the community in the district’s master facilities plan.

The board’s goal is to place a facilities bond issue on the November 2013 ballot. The committee hopes to present a report, with recommendations, to the board by early May.

The committee is now using the Civic Commons website for comments from the public and committee members about the facilities process, Mullen said. The web page can be found here.

Documents related to the committee’s work will continue to be stored on the blog site, chuhfacilities.org, Mullen said.

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